It had been shaping up to be a dismal week for running backs. Early this week, reports on Doug Martin said had suffered a torn labrum and would be lost for the season. DeMarco Murray’s knee sprain was reportedly going to keep him out for upwards of a month. Steven Jackson suffered a setback last week with his hamstring sidelining him indefinitely.

Yet the news today is much more positive for all three backs. Jackson seems likely to play in the Falcons’ matchup against the Cardinals. Murray is practicing as if he is going to suit up for Dallas, as well. Martin already has missed Week 8 and likely will miss Week 9, but he could be available for Week 10.

na AP Photo

Out in Seattle, Percy Harvin (hip) and the Seahawks are being coy about whether he’ll be ready for Monday night’s showdown against the Rams. Even if he doesn’t suit up for that one, it gives off the feeling that he’ll be ready in a few weeks, at the latest.

Obviously, that type of news is encouraging for fantasy owners. But be careful in reading too much into it.

As I mentioned last week with Jimmy Graham, teams are often optimistic and sometimes, flat-out lie about the status of their players in the NFL. Rob Gronkowski was questionable Week 1, and there were some noises that he could play. Yet the big tight end didn’t suit up until Week 7.

And even if a player is active on game day, there’s no telling how an injury will affect him. Roddy White has been dealing with a high-ankle sprain all season. He played the Falcons first five games and was a shell of himself, catching just 14 passes for 129 yards.

Fantasy owners can view all of these returning players with guarded optimism. If Martin was dropped in your league, and you have a roster spot open, by all means, grab him and hope. If you have Murray (and hopefully Joseph Randle to cover yourself) you can gamble that he’ll be ready to go on Sunday.

But also be realistic. There are exceptions like Adrian Peterson, but also plenty of other cases where a player returning quickly doesn’t provide the same level of value he would healthy. In many cases, it isn’t a bad idea to wait at least one game to see how that guy is moving about before inserting him into your lineup.

Last week the Vikings seemed to officially put an end to the Christian Ponder era when they went with Josh Freeman at quarterback despite the latter having only been on the roster for a couple of weeks. But Freeman is suffering from a concussion and is now questionable at best for Sunday night’s game.

That leaves Ponder as the starter if Freeman is unable to go. There’s almost no way Ponder could be worse than Freeman was on Monday night but that doesn’t mean he’ll be good either. In the three games before a rib injury sidelined him, Ponder averaged 230.3 yards passing and went between 227 and 236 yards in all three performances. He threw four touchdowns in total but turned it over seven times.

A matchup against the Packers has the potential to result in plenty of yards for Ponder, but he simply hasn’t performed close to the level necessary to warrant even a bye week start in most leagues. However, with the large number of teams on bye this week, two quarterback leaguers will have to hold their nose and consider starting him if one of their guys is off.

One other quarterback change occurred this week as Brandon Weeden was benched in favor of Jason Campbell. Campbell didn’t look good last year in relief of Jay Cutler though it’s hard to imagine him performing worse than Weeden. The one issue is whether Campbell will take shots down the field. If he doesn’t Josh Gordon’s value could take a hit.

For now, don’t worry too much about Gordon’s value. He and Jordan Cameron are the go-to guys in the passing game and the game plan should be to get him the ball. If the check downs do start to occur, take a look at Chris Ogbonnaya who has shown potential as a receiver out of the backfield.